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Rachel’s CV
Rachel has a lot of experience working with museums, both national and local.
- Rachel graduated in 1997 with a degree in History and Media and found a summer job selling temporary exhibition tickets at London’s Science Museum.
- The Science Museum proved to be a magical place to work and she did several jobs there over a five year period– an ‘explainer’ for the museum’s Science of Sport blockbuster exhibition, a project coordinator on the Wellcome Wing development team and a press officer in the museum’s public relations department.
- Eventually she headed up the Science Museum’s press & public relations department during the museum’s largest capital expansion programme in its history.
- In 2001 Rachel moved to The Natural History Museum to lead on the communications and advocacy programme for the museums £100 million Darwin Centre project.
- She was tasked with the exciting (and daunting) task of changing public perceptions about this world famous Museum.
- At the Natural History Museum Rachel designed and implemented ‘Beyond T-Rex; A Museum for the 21st Century’; a strategy designed to profile the museum’s vital scientific research and world renowned collections. In the opening week, Rachel and her team generated over £4 million worth of press coverage and coordinated an intensive programme of events, culminating in the official opening by HM The Queen.
- In 2003 Rachel was appointed as a senior manager in Bristol City Council’s Cultural Services Department. Here she successfully project managed the development phases of two of the city’s flagship cultural developments – the creation of Bristol’s social history museum MShed and the redevelopment of Bristol’s concert hall – Colston Hall.
- Rachel’s work in Bristol focused on the appointment of project teams, architects and contractors, fundraising, public consultation, community engagement and strategic communications.
- In 2006 Rachel moved on to lead on internal communications for Wiltshire County Council – a leading local authority who were one of the first council’s in the UK to appoint an internal communications team. Rachel developed a suite of online and offline internal communication channels to communicate with over 4000 members of staff dispersed across this enormous county.
- In Wiltshire she was editor of the council’s staff magazine as well as a corporate editor for the organisation, ensuring consistency across communications. In 2009 she was a key part of the transition team who ensured the smooth amalgamation of the county council with four district councils to form a new unitary authority; Wiltshire Council.
- After a two year career break to look after her two young sons, Rachel set up Thirty8 Digital with her ex-Science Museum colleague and husband, Mike Ellis.
- At Thirty8 Rachel is mainly involved in helping clients audit, create, organise, and sometimes rationalise their online content; ensuring clients have a digital presence with engaging, useful and usable content.
- For some of our clients Rachel manages their day-to-day website content, social media feeds and e-newsletters.
